Then, a police officer explains: “Basically you are going to be cited for serving to the community without proper accommodations. Everything is explained in here. This is a citation. If you guys continue to come out here you will face arrest.” The ban on sharing food is part of city officials’ recent efforts to cut down on the burgeoning downtown homeless population.
The most recent law – passed by a 4-1 vote – limits where outdoor feeding can be located. It can’t be situated near another feeding site; it has to be at least 500 feet from residential property; and feed program organizers must seek permission from property owners for sites in front of their buildings.
Officials describe the new laws as "public health and safety measures," but opponents have labeled them "homeless hate laws," according to The Sun-Sentinel.
"We are simply trying to feed people who are hungry," Sims told The Sun Sentinel.
"To criminalize that is contrary to everything that I stand for as a priest and as a person of faith."
The program is run by Love Thy Neighbor. Its founder, 90 year-old Abbott, is a World War II veteran and has served food to homeless people for 20 years.
 |
Homeless Vets comprise a large part of homeless population |
The latest ordinance follows others in Fort Lauderdale that banned the homeless from soliciting at the city’s busiest intersections, outlawed sleeping on public property downtown, toughened laws against defecating in public, and made it illegal for people to store personal belongings on public property. "I'm not satisfied with having a cycle of homeless in city of Fort Lauderdale," Mayor Jack Seiler told the Sun-Sentinal, defending the law and its intent.
“Providing them with a meal and keeping them in that cycle on the street is not productive,” Seiler said.
 |
Spawn of Satan: Mayor Jack Seiler |
City officials say they are working to assist the homeless by providing housing to 22 people identified as chronically homeless, creating an outreach program run through the police department.
Also included in the city’s new budget is $25,000 to give people a one-way bus ticket to reunite with their families.
However, homelessness and those who volunteer to help them is being criminalized in towns and cities across America.
A report released by the National Coalition for the Homeless last month found that 21 cities have restricted sharing food with the homeless, and 10 other cities are in the process of doing so.
 |
Homeless Vets from illegal Iraq and Afghan wars ignored |
Back in February, officials in Columbia, South Carolina, began requiring any group of 25 people or more to pay for and obtain a permit 15 days in advance if they wished to use the city’s parks for an event.
This requirement was extended to non-profit groups and charities, though their fees would be smaller.
Those fees – as much as $120 per week – could not be met by some food programs such as Food Not Bombs, which has been sharing meals for 12 years.
Last December, a church group in Olympia, Washington, launched a battle against a City Council proposal that would stop an outreach mission that feeds hundreds of homeless residents every week.
Although the City Council passed the proposal, the group still continues to carry on its activities.
The trend is to threaten citations and arrest to those who are trying to help.
“No sane, civilized country would do that. That would be as crazy as punishing doctors and nurses who are brave enough to fight Ebola,” said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York Coalition Against Hunger, to RT. “I think we’ve lost our collective minds. We’re arresting people who should be lauded and lauding people on Wall Street and elsewhere who should be arrested.”
“Look, there are public safety concerns, there are food safety concerns, and there are ways to deal with that, and do I think going into a park is the best way to deal with homelessness and hunger? Absolutely not,” Berg added.
“We need living wage jobs and a social safety net. That being said, arresting people who are volunteering to feed their neighbors – if this wasn’t actually true you’d think this was the cruelest joke ever out of The Onion.”